The Return: Sequel to The Tigertail
by adoptpetz
Summary: The group-Chloe, Cora, Savannah and Silver-are back and ready for a new adventure. Some sea wyrms were left behind on the initial trip, and their pure numbers dwindling, began interbreeding. Now, a new mermaid is needed to care for them. The girls must return home to find her.
1. Chapter 1: The Request

**A/N: This is the requested sequel to 'The Tigertail.' Let me remind everyone that Cora Dewitt is NOT my character. She and her wyrm Momo belong to Living Like a Loco. I've tried to summarize the last book here for those of you who have not read it, but I still suggest you read 'The Tigertail' yourself. Hope you all enjoy!**

**Chapter 1**

**The Request**

"Are you ready yet, Cora?" I called from outside her Moonpool.

"I'm coming," she repeated for the fifth time. I smiled and crossed my arms with a roll of my eyes. She had 'been coming' for the past half of an hour. Cora was very particular about her eggs.

See, Cora and I and our friends Chloe and Savannah are each in charge of a breed of wyrm. That is, an aquatic sea lizard alien to Earth. Most of Cora's wyrms were sea foam green in color to match her tail, but some of them were pink. However, all of their coats were toned down with a pearly luster. My wyrms are silver with teal fins. They don't match my baby blue and gray striped tail so well, but the wing scales are the same. Chloe has the gold wyrms with royal blue fins and a bright yellow tail with open 'sunda' clouded leopard like spots. Chloe's are hot pink with cheery purple frills. Her tail matches the hot pink but has black leopard spots on it as well. Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention that we're mermaids?

Cora, Chloe, Taylor, Savannah's assumed-dead-but-not mermaid sister, Chloe, Tom, Chloe's twin brother and I were all gathering on the Bronze Bay to prepare for tonight. It was a full moon, meaning that we would get another chance to speak to Luna, the consciousness living inside of the moon that created this place and brought us here. Not only that, but tonight the rift would open so that the girls' minds could travel back to Earth in false bodies that they could control to see their families. Cora had been gifted the ability to travel between worlds at will, so it wasn't such a big deal for her. However, she knew how important it was for us, so she tried to share our enthusiasm.

"There you are!" I exclaimed.

"Thank you for displaying such patience, Silver," she teased.

"What were you doing in there?"

"I brought in at least 50 eggs last night and I fell asleep before I could put them all away. I had to organize them first."

"Come on," I laughed. "The others are waiting."

Cora ducked back under the crystalline water. I admired her tail that was so different from any I'd seen. It was the same sea foam green of her wyrms, but had a metallic sheen to it rather than a pearly luster. On top of that, she had a unique dolphin-like fluke, unlike our fishy tails.

My tail, for example, was thick and muscular, and was a dozen variations of blue, baby blue being the most prominent. Gray tiger stripes covered a large portion of it as well. As for my fluke, two bony supports held up the fins in between.

Savannah's sister Taylor has the standard tail, different from ours. Well, I should say that our tails are different from hers. I had some other mermaid friends, before I met my group, all with the same golden orange tail.

Savannah's tail, on the other hand, is a cheery yellow with open, uneven brown spots from a breed of clouded leopard called a sunda clouded leopard. Her tail has the same basic shape as mine. It seems to be the standard model.

The only thing different about Cora's transformation was that she was turned into a mermaid under a blue moon. The rest of us were converted under a simple full moon. We guess that's why her tail model is different.

Anyway, Cora went under and I followed after her, letting my gills filter out the oxygen from the water so I didn't have to bother with holding my breath. That usually gave me a headache.

We headed in the direction of Chloe's Bronze Bay, fooling around in the beautiful reefs as we went. Although New Merlein, this planet that was made nearly entirely of water was artificial, Luna sure had made it like home. I recognized many of the fish on the Gold Coast, and I could almost picture my other friends, Emma, Rikki and Cleo peeking around one of the larger rock beds as we played tag or hide and seek. I missed them sometimes, but my old life could never compare to the one I lived now. We all have been here for a year and three months, now.

"What took you so long?" Chloe exclaimed with a smug grin when we finally dragged ourselves ashore.

"Cora had eggs to arrange," I sniffed with a sly grin as I took her extended hand. She had dried it off, of course, so that she didn't get wet and sprout fins as well. I didn't need the help, however, and knowing Chloe, I recognized that she wouldn't hold a grudge if I did this.

I yanked her into the water with me with a triumphant whoop. Chloe and I were the closest out of us all, well, besides her twin brother who wasn't here yet, and I knew only too well what I could get away with. She let out a half startled, half delighted shriek as she toppled into the water. Seeing what we were doing, the other two sisters leapt into the water with us for a short splash fight. Tom arrived and broke it up.

Tom Hart was Chloe's twin brother. When she had decided to stay here permanently, the thought of never seeing her twin brother again seemed unbearable. As a result, Luna didn't give Chloe a gift. Rather, she gifted her beloved brother the ability to travel between worlds to visit whenever he wanted.

Tom yanked Chloe out of the water first, then Taylor and Savannah. I for one did not like feeling dependent on someone to get me out of the water, so Cora and I dragged ourselves out. With that, we finally started along the beach, still laughing it off.

"You know, we've been here for over a year, and we still haven't all gotten together with our family and friends back on Earth."

"Are you implying something?" I asked dryly, knowing what was coming.

"What about the JuiceNet?" Savannah suggested knowingly. Tom shrugged his agreement, and we all nodded our heads.

"What time?"

"Noon?"

"Fine by me."

"My mom will flip when she learns that there are more mermaids out there," I chuckled.

"_Your_ mom? What about my parents? They don't even know I'm a mermaid!"

"Yeah, they think you ran away," Tom put in. Rather than informing her parents of her whereabouts, Chloe had decided to entrust her secret with Tom, who had covered for us. As far as they knew, Chloe had run away and had decided to visit on occasion. Chloe knew that it was just a matter of time before they would find out.

"I wonder how the girls are doing," I commented.

"You mean Emma, Rikki and Cleo?"

"Hmm," I nodded.

We had become good friends during my time there. It was actually their transformation that inspired me to become a mermaid in the first place. I had been having intense nightmares about drowning, and knowing the power of the Moonpool, the place where we got our tails and powers, I had deliberately turned myself into a fish to escape my nightmares.

"I'm sure they're doing fine. After all, they've gotten this far." I nodded, comforted by Cora's reassuring words.

"Who wants tea?" Taylor suggested for a change of subject.

"Me!" I eagerly exclaimed. I had become addicted to the stuff.

"Silver still has a fresh stash in her hideout, I think," Savannah commented.

"I do, but it'll be an awfully hard climb for Tom and Taylor. They don't have wings."

"We'll be fine," Taylor assured. "Go ahead. We'll catch up." I shrugged and took off my shirt to reveal the tattered tank top underneath. All of us girls had them with long slashes along the back. It was quite useful for when we needed to sprout wings.

I concentrated until I heard the revolting crunching noise that indicated my wings had fully formed. The grinding crunch was a side effect of growing the wings, but it was a minor price to pay for the reward we got from it. We could _fly_!

After making sure that the other girls who had the ability were ready to go, I braced myself before taking off. The Silver Cliffs weren't too far from here. That was where my silver wyrms liked to flock and lay their eggs when they weren't in the water. I had found a crevice along the face of the cliffs that led down into a cave. It was an awesome stash. Just like the Moonpools, there was a land entrance, but it was a horrific climb over the mild mountains. That's why I worried for Tom and Taylor, but they insisted that they could do it, so I wouldn't argue.

I eased myself into the narrow tunnel and lighted town, sliding down into the familiar channel to make room for the others. I then pushed off with my feet and took off running into the main cave before we had a collision and/or a dog pile. I tumbled to a halt on the hard rock, and straitened painfully up once I'd landed. The other girls slid in after me. I got a change to laugh at them as they knocked into each other near the end of their ride.

"Playing bumper cars without the cars, now are we?"

"Yep, but we need one more player," Chloe teased pulling me down. I spit a mouthful of sand out as she poked fun and got up. I'd have pushed her into the water, had we been in a Moonpool. For now, I had to settle for a playful crack over the head, triggering a wrestling match.

Meanwhile, Savannah walked over to the bowl-like indention in the low wall I used as a counter and pulled out the herbs. Cora helped out by fetching the cups we had made out of water with our gel powers, hardened to the point where they would never go back to their liquid form again.

By the way, special powers come with our mermaidedness. We all have four basic powers- heat, freeze, control/move, and gel. We each also have a unique power. Mine is coloring the water. Chloe can play music on the water. Well, I call it music, but she insists that she creates and alters sound waves with the water to sound technical. (She's much smarter than she lets on.) Savannah can create beautiful tentacles of light on or in the water, which makes for a splendid show if I tint them different colors. Cora has two other powers. She can turn into water, and she can understand sea creatures. She reports that my pet lizard (sea wyrm) Sylvie, is quite moody. Taylor, being a standard mermaid, has only one of the basic powers. She could control the water.

Cora finally broke us up, teasing us by making Chloe and I call a truce before letting us at our mugs. I begrudgingly shook her hand and snatched back my mug.

Before crystallizing it, I had painted all of our mugs to match our tails. Mine was several shades of blue with gray stripes, Chloe's was pink with hoops to represent her complex spots, Cora's was sea foam green with metallic scales since she had no other pattern, and I had attempted a clouded sunda leopard coat for Savannah, but it looked more like a giraffe pattern. Savannah didn't care. I had received a good-humored taunting from Chloe when I hadn't gotten her spots right, so I decided to be ornery and replace the realistic spots with the hoops. Chloe got a kick out of that. Later, I offered to change it back, but she declined. She said she liked it better this way.

I plopped down in one of the makeshift chairs after Savannah had distributed the herbs.

"You know what I love about being a mermaid?" I sighed contently.

"What?"

"I don't even have to get up to make tea anymore." I demonstrated by latching onto the trickle of clean water dripping down the far wall and taking just enough to fill my cup. Then, I heated the water so that it could absorb the herb's juices quicker. If I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have even had to fetch the cup. Since it had originally been water, I was still in control of it. I could have lifted it with my powers and brought it over to me. I'd been meaning to test my latest theory, but hadn't yet. It seemed logical that if we could lock onto any source of water, then perhaps we could freeze a corner of some non-liquid object and juggle it through the air by locking onto the ice. If the ice got in the way, then we could melt it off. Couldn't we?

"We had better keep an eye on the sun," Cora commented, attempting to peer up through the tunnel. "We don't want to miss the full moon."

"We'll keep checking up on it," Chloe promised, taking a sip of her steaming cup.

"Do you think we should see how Tom and Taylor are doing?" Savannah suggested. She had been there when Taylor 'died' and had very jittery ever since.

"I'll go," I offered, setting down my cup. "Make sure Chloe doesn't poison my tea or anything." Chloe laughed and tried to trip me as I walked over to the land entrance. I jumped over her extended foot and strutted victoriously away, my head held high.

I was just climbing out of the warren and into the sunlight when Taylor poked through the thick brush. Tom followed after her. I grinned and began to slide back down. I stopped myself before I got too far. _May as well check the sun_, I noted. We had to tell time by the sun's position since we didn't have clocks. Judging by its current placement, we had about another hour before we would have to set off. I returned to report to the others.

We set off in plenty of time. Tom returned home to Earth before he was missed. He wasn't permitted into the Moonpools during a full moon anyway. Taylor, however, was. We raced each other to Savannah and Taylor's pool, where we were meeting tonight. We had set up a rotation of location so none of us felt obligated. I was the hostess next month, then came Chloe and Cora, and so went the rotation.

It was dark by the time we got there. We waited in companionable silence for the moon to peek over the rim of the dormant volcano. When the peachy colored light began to dance around the cave walls, we knew it was time. Luna had arrived.

"It is good to see you again," she began. I could almost feel her smiling. The voice echoed off of the walls. "I trust you have all fared well?"

"Very," we all said in unison. We chuckled at the jinx.

"I hate to ask a favor of you so soon, as you are still getting settled," Luna went on, "but I am afraid it is a rather urgent mission."

"What do you need us to do?" Chloe asked instantly, eager for a real job.

"Some sea wyrms were left behind on your first journey," she explained.

"And you need us to retrieve them? Is that all?" Chloe huffed. I could feel Luna's amusement vibrate off of the walls.

"You could do that for me, yes. Or, you could wait for me to finish my request."

"Sorry," Chloe blushed.

"Slick," I hissed teasingly.

"Shut up."

"As I was saying," Luna sang, her voice teeming with laughter, "some of them were left behind. Not many were left, mind you. They had trouble finding a partner of the same species to breed with, and began to die off. Survival instincts kicked in, and they began interbreeding. It is customary to have a merlin to guard every breed. I created you to do that very duty. Interbreeding was not an issue back when Merlein was intact. The issue has come up, however, so I must assign a new mermaid to the job. Now, I cannot create more mermaids to care for every combination; that would be madness! Rather, I will choose one more to care for them all."

"I can take on two jobs!" Chloe eagerly volunteered.

"When will you learn to bite your tongue," I groaned.

"I have already chosen. However, an issue has prevented it." We all waited expectantly. "I believe that Taylor is fit for the job." Taylor's eyes teemed with pride and grew wet with joy. "It would have required another metamorphosis, though, which I prepared for. I had welled up the energy for her transformation tonight, but a young girl on Earth's Gold Coast used my energy to transform herself." We all cast each other nervous glances. "I need you to retrieve her or convince her to give up her tails for the average one. I have seen inside her. She is too reckless to take Taylor's place here."

"May I go?" Taylor asked.

"I'm sorry, Taylor. I haven't the energy to send you. If the mission succeeds, though, and you become as they do, then you too will be able to travel between worlds." Taylor couldn't travel all the way back to Earth. She could only visit through the rifts like us. Cora, however, could come and go as she pleased.

"How are we supposed to do that from here?"

"I will send you four back. You can keep yourselves busy by transporting the hybrid wyrms to and fro in her place. Do you accept the mission?" Just the way she put it made me feel like a spy in the movies.

"Yes!" Chloe and Cora exclaimed. I took my own advice and bit my tongue, merely nodding in reply. I could feel Luna's joy, and it made me happy as well. The monthly rift opened up, but bigger and brighter than ever. I guess because we were going back for a longer time. I dove through first, being the closest. I couldn't wait to see Mom again, not to mention my little brother Nick.


	2. Chapter 2: Arrival

**Chapter 2**

**Arrival**

"WHOA!" I was falling through open air. My tail had strangely vanished during my fall; perhaps the open air had dried it off. In any case, I found myself falling at a very fast rate without enough time to sprout wings to catch myself.

Although I was the first to go through, I felt the hard slamming of a body against mine from below before I hit the cold water. I scrabbled for the surface, but three more bodies collided with mine from above. My tail began to reform, as did my gills. But I still needed a breath to get them started…

I emerged out of the water and took a big gulp of air. I clung to a bulge on the wall of the Moonpool to keep my head above the water as I let the rest of my body relax. I took steadying breaths to unwind my tense body.

"Nice landing," Chloe commented.

"Me? I took the hardest hammering!" I made a move, threatening to strangle her.

"Guys?" We all turned, still glaring, at Savannah, the owner of the voice. She looked incredibly amused. She pointed a finger at the astounded group of five teens- Cleo and Lewis, Rikki and Zane and Emma staring at us in bewilderment. I let a wide grin crack.

"Hi!" We all burst out in hysterics, well, all of us mermaids. The boys didn't know what to think. Chloe gave Cora a push in her fit since she was closer than me, sending her sprawling. Lewis caught her, triggering introductions. It was rather difficult through the laughter, but they were distributed. Cora had never met them, after all.

I went around receiving welcome back hugs from the girls and a friendly pat on the back from Lewis. (He wasn't a hugger.) Zane looked incredibly awkward, so I swam around myself to give him a greeting pat.

The next thing I knew, Chloe and Cora were taking turns summarizing our mission. Savannah was sitting quietly, as usual. Determined not to let Chloe get all the attention, I tossed in tidbits of details that Chloe left out to get on her nerves. (We have a love-hate relationship, incase you haven't noticed.)

When we got to the part about another mermaid, the girls looked at each other nervously. Lewis looked uncomfortable and Zane didn't quite believe the story whatsoever.

"Have you come across another mermaid?"

"We haven't seen any. Have we?" The girls shook their heads in turn. Remembering the time differential Luna mentioned on the first day we came to New Merlein, I asked, "How long has it been since we left?"

"About six months. Our one year anniversary is coming up soon," Cleo remembered.

"Has it really been that long?" Rikki asked aloud.

"That's funny," Chloe mumbled. All eyes turned to her. Realizing this, she looked up and spoke a little louder. "Well, I thought Luna said that time passed faster on Earth, so wouldn't we have been gone longer here?"

"Maybe she sent us back a little in time to catch the new mermaid before she formed?" I suggested.

"Sounds logical," she replied.

"You lot are too weird," Zane finally spoke. "Come on." He gestured for Rikki to follow. She cast a slightly apologetic glance to us, rare for temperamental Rikki, before following him out. I guessed they were a 'thing' now. They had flirted a bit before we left, so I wasn't half surprised. Opposites attract, after all.

"So if we've been gone for six months, then Mom would have been accepted or denied her new job by now," I realized. During my brief visits, Mom informed me of her application to a larger animal training facility. She was supposed to receive an answer within five months. I hadn't heard back from her.

I started out the tunnel.

"Where are you going?"

"To see Mom, of course!" I called back before submerging myself under the water. I soon saw several speeding objects hurtling towards shore like torpedoes around me. I grinned and shot forward with them. No way was I going to let Chloe beat me to shore. I'd hear all about it for the rest of the day.

I found Mom bringing water out to the kennel. I broke into a run at the sight of her.

"Mom!" I cried. She turned to see me.

"Carry!" She dropped her pail and sprinted in my direction. (My real name is Caroline Jessica Price, but everyone calls me Silver.) She caught me in a tight embrace and began blubbering about how much she missed me. I used my old trick and started laughing, causing her to shut up so that she could wonder what in the world I was laughing about.

Now that I was free from her suffocating squeeze, I tried to begin my story. She, however, interrupted me before I could start.

"I haven't seen you in ages! I thought you could come back to visit every month!" Mom knew about us mermaids, and eagerly awaited my visits.

"There's a time differential, remember?"

"I was hoping you'd come tonight. It's a full moon here, but I wasn't sure about your place. What do you call it?"

"New Merlein, Mom. It was Chloe's idea."

"Right, New Merlein. What happened to the old Merlein?"

"You said it was a full moon tonight?" I thought it best to change the subject or I'd never get the answers I needed.

"That's what the calendar says."

"So maybe it's tonight," I mumbled.

"What's tonight?" I quickly but briefly summarized my mission.

"I hope my room hasn't turned into storage, because I'll be staying longer than one night this time." Mom almost fainted with joy at the news and hugged me again. I let out a little laugh which I instantly regretted. I needed all the air I could get in my lungs when Mom was this excited.

"How's Nick," I asked.

"He's fine," she laughed, becoming teary eyed. "Come on. He's in his room."

Nick had grown since I'd last seen him, but not by much. Six months wasn't much time to grow.

"You know, I bought a boat since you last visited. I thought it might come in handy, you being a fish and all."

"Mermaid," I corrected. Mom smiled, but I thought about that. "Or maybe I'm a merlin. Or maybe I'm a hybrid." Mom let out a laugh and held me close again.

"You are my little girl."

"Not so little anymore," I teased, escaping her grasp.

"No," she agreed with a sigh. I couldn't tell if it was a contented or a pained sigh.

"Have you used your cups much?" I asked.

"A few I use often. The others made their way into the Cabinet."

"Mom, they're not fine china," I groaned. The Cabinet was where she put all of her prized dishes and silverware. "They're disposable. I can make as many as you like."

"They are one of a kind," she insisted, "handmade by my own little girl." I rolled my eyes.

"We just went through this," I snorted. It was Mom's turn to change the subject.

"Lewis hasn't told me much about the other girls- Emma, Rikki and Cleo- when he comes around to help with the dogs."

"He actually does that? I thought he just promised because I made him."

"He stuck to his word alright. I think he still feels an obligation to keep it a secret. I did pick up from him that they have to prepare for the full moon. It puts some sort of spell over them. Is that right?"

"Yes. When I was living here, the moon affected us in different ways. Chloe, Cora and Savannah and I all sang to the moon like sirens. The affects on Emma, Rikki and Cleo were different every month."

"Do you need to do something like that too- prepare for the moon, I mean. I'll help you with whatever you need to do." I cocked my head in consideration. I had never really hidden from the full moon. I tried once, and then when I gave in and willingly faced it, it had no affect on me whatsoever. That was the night that I'd left.

"I guess I probably should, now that our group's together…" I hesitated before confirming the request.

"But," Mom prompted.

"But if tonight is the night the new mermaid arrives, then maybe I should go out to meet her."

"You don't know that she's coming tonight."

"No, but it is a coincidence that Luna sent us back into the past on the night of a full moon."

"If it will make you feel any better, I'll go out and check tonight," Mom offered.

"No, no, it's not your problem," I declined.

"Your safety is more important than my leisure time," she scoffed.

"I'll see what the other girls are planning to do," I decided.

"Should we start preparing you just in case?" Mom was evidently pretty freaked out by the whole moon spell thing.

"Let me call them now," I decided, heading up the steps to find my phone. I hadn't brought it to New Merlein with me. It wasn't of much use without a satellite to send the signal.

After a half of an hour of phone tag, it was decided that we would face the moon to find our new arrival, should she come tonight.


	3. Chapter 3: Moon Dancers

**Chapter 3**

**Moon Dancers**

We met at Mako Island in plenty of time. We still had a few hours before the moon rose, and Cora suggested that we get some scouting done. She wanted to be sure that the mermaid wasn't here. I didn't argue.

We covered most of the reefs and space between shore and Mako's closest shore, but saw no one besides Emma who had come out on a quick swim before the full moon. She passed on the message that the moon would rise in less than an hour before taking off. The whole situation was making my stomach a bit uneasy. I suggested waiting for the moon in the Moonpool, where we would be safe until the moon was at its peak. Chloe called me a worry wart and continued her search. Savannah, though, agreed with me, so we went to wait in the pool. Cora stayed out with Chloe.

Savannah and I kept up the conversation by telling funny or merely memorable childhood experiences and whatnot. Savannah told me about her grandparents' horse farm in Kentucky. She'd had her own horse- a golden palomino stallion named Chief. I'd always admired horses, but hadn't ever gotten close enough to one to touch one, let alone ride. Savannah promised that one day she'd take me to her grandparents' farm so that I could learn.

I'm not sure how long we had been talking. Before I knew it, though, Savannah made a good point.

"Silver?"

"Yeah?"

"Shouldn't they have been back by now? Chloe and Cora, I mean?" I looked up at the sky through the top of the dormant volcano. It was pitch black up there besides the few sparkling stars. I noticed a sliver of light creeping up over the edge. _The moon_, I thought.

"Go," I whispered.

"Where?" I liked how Savannah never questioned a demand unless it was completely bizarre.

"Go to tunnel. I see the moon coming up. It'll do us no good if we're moon blinked too." Savannah scrambled to the tunnel, already dry, and climbed halfway up. I dragged myself out of the water and burned my tail as I rushed to steam-dry it. I gritted my teeth and waited impatiently for my legs to return. Once I had re-solidified from my liquid state, I leapt to my feet and made a made dash for the tunnel.

I finally stopped to catch my breath when I found Savannah clinging to the side of the tunnel about halfway through. We were both panting ragged breaths, not so much from exhaustion as from panic. I looked back at the moonlight reflecting off of the sand. I heard the faint bubble of the Moonpool behind us. We'd made it just in time.

"The bubbling has stopped," I finally puffed. Savannah nodded and slid down the tunnel on cue.

"Do you think Cora and Chloe have been moon blinked?"

"Probably," I nodded.

"I guess tonight wasn't the night," she sighed, calming down.

"Either she's still coming, or she's already here," I agreed. I projected the angles in my head. "Should we go out to look for them?"

"And get moon struck ourselves?"

"If we stay on this side of the island, we should be safe from the moon."

"Are you sure?"

"It's better than being cooped up in here for the rest of the night. Besides, we don't know how the moon will affect them now. They might expose us. The songs helped us to find each other before, but we don't have any reason to sing anymore."

"We have one more mermaid to find," she pointed out.

"I don't think it works that way," I insisted. "Besides, I don't hear them. Look, you can stay, but I'll take my chances." I dove back into the pool and zipped off into the dark ocean. I heard too many bubbles forming in my wake, so I turned back to see Savannah reluctantly following. I grinned back at her, but flinched when I heard a boat motor nearby.

I followed it, hoping it was just Lewis chasing after his moon struck mermaids. I was coming dangerously close to the border of the full moon-proof area. It wasn't Lewis's boat, nor was it Zane's zodiac. It wasn't so different from Lewis's, but it was definitely a different model. _Strange_, I thought. It was painted with three stripes. The top one was white, the middle one was dark gray, and the bottom one was blue. It wouldn't have seemed so strange if those hadn't been the very colors found in my 'tigertail.' I got a better look at the figure speeding away in the boat, and grinned.

"Mom!" I screeched at the top of my lungs. She was almost to shore, and over the sound of the motor, I wasn't sure that she'd heard me. She did, however, stop to look around. "Mom," I called again.

"Carry?"

"Over here!" I started towards her, but seeing the glowing halo around the moon poking over the trees, I backed away.

"Where are you?" I waved my hands. She still couldn't pick me out from the dark water. Fortunately, Savannah joined me, and started a light show just above our heads. It caught Mom's eye, and she turned her boat around. I hadn't quite believed her when she'd said that she bought a boat. The motor sputtered to a stop as she pulled up alongside us. I grabbed onto the side of the boat and pulled myself up until I was hanging off of the edge. Mom worked her way around the boat so that it didn't tip under my weight but she could still sit with me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked with a wide grin. I had to admit, I was glad to see her.

"I was fretting over the moon, that's all," she sighed, relieved that I hadn't succumbed to its influence.

"You left Nick by himself?"

"Of course not. Janette is watching him. I told her I had an important errand to run and she didn't ask any questions." Janette was an old family friend.

Mom's gaze swept the area.

"Where are the others?" I looked down at Savannah who just shrugged before ducking under the water.

"They were looking for fish number five. We haven't seen them since."

"You think it was the moon?" I nodded. Mom looked horrified.

"It's not so bad, Mom. You only feel yourself under its influence for a few seconds. After that, you don't remember anything you did that night." If anything, I think I made the matter worse. I knew how she felt, though. Before, I eagerly went out to face the full moon without thinking twice. Now, though, I was terrified of it. I would do anything to escape it. I couldn't leave Chloe and Cora out on their own though. If the moon affected us differently now, then there was no telling what they might do. If I kept them around Mako, we should be safe.

I relayed my plan to Mom. Since she wouldn't be affected, she could be a big help. I didn't notice when Savannah waded out a bit farther, scanning the surface for the missing mermaids.

"Mom, you check over the far shores of Mako. I'll cover the South shores, and Savannah can check the East so we stay out of the moonlight. Is that okay with you, Savannah?" I didn't receive an answer. I turned around, and Mom's face went pale. Savannah was just ducking under water glazed with moonlight. I shot back a few yards to avoid being moon blinked myself, but Mom stayed where she was, and watched fearfully.

"They're dancing," she whispered, fearful tears in her eyes. I peeked around a rock. There they were- all three of my closest friends under the moon's influence. They surfaced occasionally and spun around a bit before diving back down and doing more loops and twirls and twists and bends. _It wasn't so bad_, I tried to tell myself. But it was. They weren't _them_ anymore. They didn't know what they were doing. That scared me more than anything ever would. After all, that could be me.

A bright sliver poked out around the rock. I flinched, instinctively moving back. Too late. I gazed up at the bright moon for a while. Mom noticed my foggy eyes, and flipped out. Then I went to join my friends in our sea dance.


End file.
